Chocolate Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins

I LOVE Costco's chocolate muffins! Dunked in a glass of milk, they are like heaven in my mouth! I'm pretty sure they have about 8 zillion calories and 10 zillion grams of fat, not to mention a sugar level that would shoot you to the moon.  Not too Weight Watchers friendly in my experience.  So, here's an alternative that comes pretty darn close! I've tried switching out the butter for non fat plain greek yogurt, and they weren't quite as moist, but they were still yummy.  The original recipe makes them in a regular muffin tin, but I used my Demarle Mini-Muffin tray instead for fewer WW points per muffin, and next-to-zero clean up. Enjoy!

Chocolate Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins
Recipe Courtesy of SkinnyTaste.com

Servings: 12 • Size: 1 muffin • Old Points: 3 pts • Points+: 5 pts
Calories: 170.5 • Fat: 5.3 g • Protein: 2.6 g • Carb: 31.8 g • Fiber: 2.1 g • Sugar: 16.1 g
Sodium: 41.3 mg
(When I do mini-muffins, I get about 25 muffins, so according to my guesstimations, each muffin is worth 2 Weight Watchers Points Plus)

• 3 1/2 ripe medium bananas, mashed
• 1/4 cup unsweetened apple sauce
• 1 1/4 cups unbleached all purpose flour
• 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder ( I sometimes use 1/3 cup or more because it makes a much darker chocolate muffin, and adds about 30 calories into the whole recipe)
• 3/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 2 tbsp butter, softened
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 2 large egg whites
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips

Preheat your oven to 325 degrees. Mash up the bananas in your mixing bowl.  I usually use my Kitchen Aid mixer, so I just mash up the bananas in that...watch out though, sometimes the bananas go flying!

After you have made a nice banana slurry, add in the applesauce, butter, sugar, egg whites, and mix well.  In a separate bowl, add the flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt, and whisk well to combine.

Add that to the wet ingredients, and mix on low until just combined...remember from junior high home economics that over mixing your muffins causes tunnels! :) Then fold in your chocolate chips, and that's it!

I use a cookie scoop to fill up the muffin tray, it's a nice and tidy way to do it! Fill the holes about 3/4 of the way full.

Bake mini-muffins for 20-25 minutes, and big muffins for 25-30 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.  Poor a glass of cold milk, dunk, and enjoy!